“Netflix” by flickr user Jenny Cestnik.

This month, Netflix moved one step closer to media domination, launching its streaming service in 130 countries, bringing the total number of countries-where-one-can-watch-Netflix to 190, including India and Russia. (Notably missing: Indonesia, which banned the service because of its “unfiltered content.”) With some 70 million users and dozens of award-winning original series, the streaming giant is causing some in Hollywood to freak out. (Cable, meanwhile, is already in full-fledged panic mode with cord-cutting numbers rising dramatically.) But Netflix is only part of the story: Amazon, which closed 2015 with more US subscribers than Netflix, and earned serious accolades for its original series Mozart in the Jungle, Transparent, and Man In The High Castle, is now elbowing its way into film distribution. At Sundance this month, Amazon outbid Sony Pictures Classics, Universal, Fox Searchlight and Lionsgate to nab the Matt Damon-produced drama Manchester by the Sea. This is part of a larger trend of streaming services outbidding traditional theatrical distributors and is a major reversal from last year, when both Amazon and Netflix were shut out of the Sundance bidding, indicating streaming services are gaining ground not just with the casual watcher at home, but with directors, producers and actors on the international stage.

Canada Council commits to diversity regulations with teeth. Last June, the Canada Council for the Arts announced a major restructuring of its grant making programs, with plans to reduce its 147 separate programs–each with its own guidelines, deadlines and reporting–to six. The model will go live in April 2017, in honor of the Council’s 60th anniversary. Details of the plan emerged this past month, and the most interesting–and perhaps even radical–of them is the fact that the Council has decided to include diversity among the list of criteria considered when making recommendations of grants and grant amounts. For institutions with revenue of more than $2 million, the diversity of the arts “on stage” as well as that of the team “behind the curtain” will be judged. If your institution does not demonstrate a “commitment to reflecting the diversity of your organization’s geographic community or region,” this will now affect the size of grant received from the federal arts council. If the liberal government keeps its campaign promise, the Council’s annual budget will grow to $360 million over the next two years–enough for the Council to have a real impact on the diversity of the country’s arts organizations. The Council’s decision follows that of Arts Council England, which made a similar shift to towards increasing diversity in December 2014 (though organizations there have until 2018 to get in line.) The United States is not quite there yet, but the nation’s two largest cities seem to be laying groundwork in place: in New York, a survey by the Department of Cultural Affairs released this month indicated that by and large the city’s arts organizations do not reflect the city’s diversity, and Los Angeles County recently formed an advisory committee to examine “proposals that would lead to more diverse arts boards, staff, audience members, and programming at appropriate arts institutions.”

#OscarsStillSoWhite…but not for long? In what the LA Times described as “another embarrassing Hollywood sequel,” the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced for the second year in a row a roster of all-white acting nominees (and no best picture nominations for films focusing on minority populations despite various viable options). This prompted a resurgence of the 2015 hashtag #OscarsSoWhite (and the birth of its offspring #OscarsStillSoWhite), with actors such as Will Smith pledging to boycott the February 28 awards ceremony or calling for host Chris Rock to step aside. The Academy’s board and President Cheryl Boone Isaacs responded with an emergency meeting that resulted in a unanimous vote for “radical changes” with the goal of doubling the number of female and minority members by 2020. These include plans for reviewing and possibly revoking the voting status of the (94% white) lifelong members who are less active in the motion picture industry to make way for more diverse voters; an “ambitious, global” recruitment campaign (as opposed to the old small group nomination system); and the addition of three new board seats (to hopefully be filled by members of color). Though this year’s still-so-white Oscars announcement, and the Academy’s sweeping response, provoked a flurry of media attention (even a statement by President Obama), as we documented in our 2015 annual news roundup, Hollywood has been slowly waking up to the need to do something about its diversity problem over the past year. Despite grumbles from some established Academy members, the overall 2016 public and institutional reaction is in sharp contrast to Jesse Jackson’s failed 1996 protest against a similarly homogenous Oscars lineup. While the effectiveness of the Academy’s latest measures remains to be seen, one can be sure that the organization’s diversity efforts will receive some red-carpet-worthy scrutiny.

Philadelphia Media Network donated to the Philadelphia Foundation. In October, as part of a larger story on alt-weeklies and their perhaps dubious future, we noted that Philadelphia’s beloved City Paper had published its last edition. Philadelphia journalism captures our attention once again this month, but for much better reason. In a surprise move, H.F. “Gerry” Lenfest, the sole owner of the Philadelphia Media Network, gifted the PMN, which runs The Inquirer, Daily News and Philly.com website, to the Institute for Journalism in New Media, a subsidiary of the Philadelphia Foundation. It’s the first time a major local newspaper has gone “nonprofit” since the advent of the internet, and the structure is certainly complicated. While unique and untested, the new alignment has the promise to preserve and enhance public-interest reporting while new electronic distribution methods are developed. The nonprofit status is not yet a done deal (the IRS has yet to weigh in), and the new format won’t necessarily solve outright the newspapers’ varied struggles. However, with newspapers continuing to struggle across the board, if this unusual structure is successful, it’s possible other papers will follow suit.

New directions at the Irvine Foundation. For the past year, James Irvine Foundation president Don Howard has been leading his staff in an deep exploration of what the foundation might change or do better. (You can read many of the responses to this question here and here, and Diane Ragsdale’s response, which pushes back against the foundation’s perspective that arts engagement is the most important issue facing the arts, here.) The foundation, which is the largest funder of the arts in California, has in recent years focused its resources on three areas, (1) engaging in the arts; (2) advancing democracy in California; and (3) preparing youth for success. Now, the foundation has announced an evolving focus: “expanding economic and political opportunity for families and young adults who are working but struggling with poverty.” This new direction seems squarely focused on two of those three areas, with the arts notably absent. The foundation has made assurances that it will remain committed to current grantees for the time being, and work continues apace on several existing programs, including the Arts Regional Initiative which just published a new report. In the long term, however, the arts’ role seems much murkier; a response to an inquiry about continuing arts support promises only that the foundation is “excited to explore how new initiatives focused on creative expression and the arts can be part of new initiatives aligned with our evolving focus.”

MUSICAL CHAIRS / COOL JOBS

• Bruce W. Davis has been named President and CEO of ArtsKC, Kansas City’s regional arts council.
• Charles Thomas, an experienced social entrepreneur and civic innovator, will join the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation as a program director based in Charlotte.
• The School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University, Bloomington, invites applications for a full-time lecturer faculty position in the area of arts management. Posted January 23; no closing date.
• The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage hiring a Senior Visual Arts Specialist. Posted January 26; no closing date.
• ArtsKC is hiring a Director of Programs and Grants to replace the retiring Paul Tyler. Closing date February 26.

NEW RESEARCH OF NOTE

• A research article published in AERA Open this month lends new evidence to argument for the benefits of arts engagement at an early age.
• Ingenuity’s third State of the Arts in Chicago Public Schools released this month details the arts assets available to CPS students in the 2014-15 school year.
• A longitudinal study of over 700 U.S. companies released this month suggests implementing diversity training programs does not actually increase diversity. On the flip side, a report published by Stanford Graduate School of Education found that at-risk high school students benefit from taking ethnic studies classes, which introduce a diversity of perspectives and may better align with personal cultural experience.
• New York attorney general Eric T. Schneiderman’s office sheds light on widespread abuses in ticketing industry in New York.
• A white paper from the National Center for Arts Research at Southern Methodist University examines the distinguishing characteristics of arts organizations that primarily serve communities of color, in a response to the widely discussed (and criticized) report from the DeVos Institute on the same topic last year.
• Move over TV: Repucom, which researches sports and entertainment markets, surveyed adults between 13 and 34 in Britain, France, Germany, Japan and the United States and found that music is the top leisure interest for the millennial generation.
• Linguists Carmen Fought and Karen Eisenhauer analyzed all the dialogue from the Disney princess franchise and found that even in movies where the princess is the protagonist, male roles speak more than female roles.
• A few studies this month looked at art through a city lens. One, published in the academic journal Economic Development Quarterly, looks at the links between big performing arts organizations (those with budgets over $2 million) and the change in what Richard Florida defines at the ‘creative class’. A report commissioned by the Boston Foundation shows Boston trails other cities in institutional arts funding, and the Three-City Arts Study, released by Partners for Sacred Spaces, provides a scalable, replicable model for matching small to mid-size dance and theater companies having space needs with historic sacred places that have available space.
• Two reports this month looked at the contemporary art market. One, released by economics professors at the University of Luxembourg suggests that the international art market is overheating, creating the potential for a “severe correction” in the postwar and contemporary and American segments. Another looks at what kind of person who opens a private contemporary art museum.
• And finally, looking to the international stage, UNESCO released a report on the impact of the “Convention on Protection & Promotion of Diversity of Cultural Expressions,” and the 2016 Global NGO Online Technology Report provided insight into the global NGO sector and its use of online technology.

Marche Républicaine in Paris on January 11, 2015 – photo by flickr user Maya-Anaïs Yataghène

On the morning of January 7, two masked gunmen – now known to be brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi – attacked the offices of the French satirical weekly magazine Charlie Hebdo, killing twelve, including the paper’s editor, Stéphane “Charb” Charbonnier. In the wake of the attack, which was apparently a retaliation for the magazine’s repeated depictions of the prophet Muhammad, the surviving editorial staff decided to publish a subsequent issue, with a cover featuring a weeping Muhammad framed by “I am Charlie” and “all is forgiven.” The issue sold millions of copies, a far cry from the weekly’s usual 60,000-piece circulation, and further incensed the Muslim world — with protests in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Chechnya, and Niger. Other cities rallied instead in support of free speech; a solidarity march held on the Sunday after the attack drew almost four million citizens and some forty world leaders. (The U.S. presence was notably lacking.)

This is by no means the first time that art in general and satire in particular have become targets for Islamic fundamentalists. (Createquity has covered several such incidents in the past, notably in September and November of 2012.) Still, the scope of the attack prompted an avalanche of news coverage and reactions exploring all sides of the issue, including the growing backlash across Europe against Muslim immigrants, Islamist terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism, and importantly for this forum, freedom of expression. Artists around the world responded most immediately, many drawing up their own cartoons in support of the magazine specifically, and of the role cartoonists play in moments of conflict. Jordan Weissman cautioned against an either-or-approach, suggesting in Slate that Charlie Hebdo’s work is both “heroic and racist.” Oliver Tonneau, a radical French leftist, made a case for freedom of speech by noting that the considerable body of work put forth by the magazine was squarely within the French satirical tradition and, crucially, intended for an audience with the cultural context to see it as so. Others, like Marguerite Debaie, Maz Jobrani, and Karl Sharro, amplified the conversation by shining a light on the tradition of cartooning and satire in the Middle East and in Islam. Back in Paris, new editor-in-chief Gérard Biard has made it clear that Charlie Hebdo will continue on, albeit with a delay of the magazine’s 1,179th issue.

Net Neutrality’s Chances Suddenly Looking a Lot Better: The net neutrality battle, which landed at No. 3 on our Top Ten Arts Policy Stories of 2014, is kicking into high gear, and for the first time in quite a while things are looking pretty good for those in the “pro” camp. On January 7, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Tom Wheeler hinted in an interview that new net neutrality rules would in fact be crafted under Title II of the Telecommunications Act, a move President Obama himself called for in November (and which he reiterated in his State of the Union address.) Net neutrality supporters welcomed the announcement – a reversal of Wheeler’s previous stance – as such a classification would provide the greatest degree of protection for content producers within the strongest legal framework. Piggybacking on Wheeler’s announcement, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Representative Doris Matsui (D-CA) reintroduced the Online Competition and Consumer Choice Act, which would unambiguously authorize the FCC to issue net neutrality rules under whatever framework it deemed appropriate. (In response, Representative Fred Upton (R-Mich) along with Senator John Thune (R-S.D), the head of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, released their own draft legislation contesting the FCC’s legal authority to enforce online competition.) The biggest win for the pro camp in January, however, came from an unexpected ally:  mobile telecommunications provider Sprint circulated a letter to the FCC in which the company argued that “light-touch” regulation under a Title II framework would not harm investment or deployment, and that the open Internet has benefited consumers and businesses alike. On January 29, the FCC voted to change the definition of “broadband internet” in the hopes of expanding access in the rural United States. This vote is but a prelude to the final one, which is set for February 26 (though a draft of the proposed rules should be available as beginning February 5.)

Uncle Sam Busts the Overhead Myth: The nonprofit starvation cycle got some much-needed disruption in January in the form of new Office of Management and Budget rules on overhead spending in federal grants. The new rules include many benefits for nonprofits, such as broadening “direct cost” allocations and increasing the single audit threshold. The most welcome, however, is the rule regarding reimbursements for “indirect costs.” The guidance states that “when governments hire nonprofits to provide services, those nonprofits legitimately need to incur and be paid for their ‘indirect costs’,” i.e. their overhead and administrative expenses. In concrete terms, this means that nonprofits are now able to apply at least 10% of a grant or contract to pay indirect costs; the percentage increases for those organizations following new cost allocation rules. The federal adoption of these rules is only the beginning. The real work lies in communicating and consistently applying its tenets to the tens of thousands of organizations that stand to benefit. This will require a bit of advocacy work on behalf of the field which is sure to pay off.

Film and Theater Industries Continue to Struggle with Diversity: Hollywood’s diversity problem reared its (ugly) head again this month when the coveted Oscar nominations were announced: the twenty contenders for lead and supporting actor and actress were all white, the director category was dominated by white men, and not a single woman was nominated in either of the screenwriting categories. Worse yet, a recent study from the Directors Guild of America revealed that in the past five years, from the 2009-10 season through the 2013-14 season, 87% of first-time TV directors were white, and 82% of them were male. However bleak it may look on screen, in other corners of the arts world people are starting to take action. In December, Arts Council England announced an aggressive plan to engender diversity among its grantees – so aggressive that those who fail to meet the agency’s (as yet unspecified) standards risk losing their funding. This month, New York City’s Department of Cultural Affairs announced an initiative to measure the diversity of the city’s cultural organizations on the staff and leadership side. While there’s no penalty (yet) for those who come up short in this case, the initiative is seen as the first step in developing a plan to address diversity more broadly. Back in LA, a coalition of Southern Californian theater companies, led by Tim Dang of the East West Players, has proposed an initiative that calls for at least 51% of those employed by SoCal theater companies by 2019 to be people of color, women or those younger than 35. Though the initiative has encountered some concern that it runs afoul of anti-discrimination laws, supporters argue that finally doing something about diversity necessitates starting somewhere.

FAA to Enforce Instrument Carry-On Legislation: In a big win for touring musicians, a full three years after congress formally ordered airlines to allow passengers to carry on their instruments without charging them additional fees, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has finally taken action to implement these rules consistently across all airlines. There are caveats, of course: the instrument has to fit in the overhead bin (looks like tubas and upright basses are out of luck), and there has to be room in said bins for said instruments at the time one boards (no longer a given in the era of charging-for-checked-luggage.) Still, the rules are welcome news. They go into effect on March 6 – plenty of time to figure out your personal boarding-with-an-instrument game plan.

MUSICAL CHAIRS / COOL JOBS

• ArtPride New Jersey has named Adam Perle as its new president & CEO. Ann Marie Miller, who has served ArtPride as executive director since 1995, will assume the new position of director of advocacy and public policy.
• Christa Blatchford is the new CEO of The Joan Mitchell Foundation.
• Sofia Klatzker will assume the role of executive director of Arts for LA in March.
• Detroit Institute of Arts director Graham Beal has announced he will formally retire when his contract ends in June, following an eventful sixteen-year tenure that culminated in securing the institution’s art collection from the bankrupt City of Detroit.
• After twelve years with the Ford Foundation, Roberta Uno is moving on to become the director of Arts in a Changing America, a new national project based at the California Institute of the Arts.
• Creative Scotland, the national body that supports the development of arts, screen and creative industries across Scotland, has appointed Richard Findlay as its new chair.
• China’s top legislature, the National People’s Congress, has appointed Luo Shugang its new minister of culture.
• Julie Fry, program officer with the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation’s Performing Arts Program since 2007, will join Cal Humanities, California’s statewide humanities council, as president and CEO. Fry’s old position has been posted as of January 6 with no closing date.
• TurnaroundArts California seeks a Program Coordinator. Posted January 6, no closing date.
• The Center for Effective Philanthropy is hiring a Research Analyst for its San Francisco office. Posted January 21; no closing date.
• National Endowment for the Arts is hiring for two positions: Theater and Music Director and Media Arts Director. Both are for two year terms with the possibility to extend. Posted January 29; deadline March 7.
• And across the pond, Creative Scotland seeks a Director of Creative Industries. Deadline February 8.

NEW RESEARCH OF NOTE

• The National Endowment for the Arts released three new studies last month looking at arts engagement and its economic impact in the United States. One study looks specifically at motivations for and barriers to arts attendance  (and is the focus of Createquity’s recent Research Spotlight); a second study looks at public participation over twenty years (which reveals that three quarters of Americans use electronic media to view or listen to art); and the third looks at the cultural sector’s contribution to the nation’s GDP. The reports touched off a flurry of responses, some which called out the NEA for suggesting insufficient next steps.
• Two reports from Wallace Foundation, “Road to Results,” and “Thriving Arts Organizations, Thriving Arts,” released this month look at effective strategies for developing arts audiences and plans for the foundation’s next phase of research and funding in this area.
• A recent survey of arts attendance in Hong Kong shows only modest growth, though interestingly, Xiqu, Chinese opera, shows the most dramatic increase.
• The Community Development Department of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco published a review of research and best practices in providing capital to low- and moderate-income communities through creative placemaking approaches.
• Local Initiatives Support Corporation released an evaluation of its own work in 63 communities nationwide, and suggests that the best strategy for improving low-income communities is long-term investment across multiple needs, such as affordable housing, safety, education, employment, and other basic services.
• An article in Urban Studies has found a wide (and concerning) gap in the definition and application of the term “gentrification” between the New York Times, census data and major academic studies over the past three decades.
• The OMG Center for Collaborative Learning released a report outlining eight strategies for facilitating diversity, equity, & inclusion among foundations, their grantees and the communities in which they work.
• A new report from the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation looks at arts business training programs across the United States.
• A report from the Wyncote Foundation tracks how 40 legacy cultural organizations in the United States are successfully embracing digital media in their work.
• A recently released Independent Library Report for England, commissioned by the UK’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport, includes a series of recommendations for how libraries can attract a younger, digitally-savvy crowd.
• Two recent reports look at the effects of the arts on children. Northwestern University released a study that suggests that the cognitive benefits of music are most significant when children actively engage with music, and a study from the children’s book publisher Scholastic shows that being read aloud to as young child correlates strongly with being an avid reader later in life.
• Culture at Kings, the Cultural Institute at King’s College in London, released a review of arts education policy in the UK over the past seventy years, and urges policy makers to look more closely at lessons learned over time.
• A survey by the industry group Stage Directors UK found the average salary for UK directors is £10,000, less than half average national wage.
• And finally, a rather bizarre study out of DePaul University finds evidence to suggest that surrealist art is more emotionally reassuring than non-surrealist art to individuals contemplating their own mortality.